Collateral Costs of Imprisonment for Women: Complications of Reintegration

Abstract

This article examines issues of family separation and community isolation as experienced by women on parole. Qualitative data, based on unstructured, in-depth interviews with 54 former inmates, offer retrospective reflections and current accounts that delineate many of the unintended costs of imprisonment. The narratives portray the difficulties these women experienced in parenting, relationships, and community reintegration. Social stigma and self-shame are important definitional and reactional elements of their efforts to reestablish social bonds. The collateral costs of imprisonment are related to diminished investment in self and others that is created by continued internal and external shaming.